5 Tips for a Healthier Year

Have you been meaning to lead a healthier lifestyle, but haven’t gotten around to it? The New Year is a great time to start. Make 2016 your healthiest year by following these 5 easy tips!

1) Engage In Daily Exercise

I know, I know, you don’t have time to exercise with everything else going on. It’s time to make your health a priority and make time! The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends 30 minutes of moderate intensity exercise 5 days per week. You don’t have 30 minutes of uninterrupted time? No worries. You will also receive benefits if you divide your exercise routine into two (15 minutes) or three (10 minutes) segments per day. AHA identifies examples of moderate intensity exercise including a brisk walk >3 miles/hour, water aerobics, tennis doubles, ballroom dancing, and general gardening. Some great ways to work this into your busy daily routine are to take a walk on your lunch break or after dinner with your family, take the stairs at work instead of the using the elevator, and intentionally park further away from the store entrance in the parking lot.

2) No More Sugar

There is a direct link between sugar consumption and obesity and diabetes in the United States. Dr. Hyman MD, author of the “10- Day Detox Diet Cookbook” stated, “sugar is eight times as addictive as cocaine.” So our desire to eat sugar is driven by hormones leading to overeating and large sugar consumption. The average American consumes 152 pounds of sugar per year (That’s 22 tsp per day)! The AHA suggests women should consume no more than 6 tsp of sugar a day and men no more than 9 tsp per day.

There are some sugar alternatives, but be careful. Not all of them are better for you than sugar. When choosing an alternative make sure it is natural occurring not processed from chemicals. Nutritionist Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., author of The Healthiest Meals on Earth is in favor of Stevia (Truvia and SweetLeaf). It is naturally occurring herb found in Central and South America, is 40 times sweeter than sugar, has zero calories, and little to no glycemic index so it won’t spike your blood sugar. I have switched to this in my hot tea and can’t tell a difference.

Picture of Stevia rebaudiana plant.

3) Stick to Water

This was the hardest for me. I was addicted to soda, but gave it up cold turkey 6 years ago. I’m not going to mislead you and say I never want a soda or even crave it (still 6 years later). It is still hard and a struggle some days. Just as I stated earlier, sugar is a huge problem in our diets. Soda is a quick way to take in too much sugar before you know it. “But I limit myself to one soda a day, that’s ok right?” No! A study cited in Diabetes Care found that adults who consume 1-2 sugary drinks per day had a 26% increase in developing Type II Diabetes. In addition, a typical non-diet 21 oz soda has 182 calories! So cutting them from your diet is a quick way to decrease your caloric intake. More alarming, another study found a 60% increase in becoming obese in children per 12 oz soda consumed per day! What are we doing to our kids?!

The 21 Day Fix recommends you drink 1/2 your body weight in ounces of water per day. So a 150 pound person would need to drink 75 ounces of water per day. I accomplish this by keeping a water bottle with me at all times and drinking on it throughout the day. Remember if you are thirsty you are already dehydrated.

4) Portion Control

Generally speaking, Americans eat too much. Other countries eat 20% less on average. There are recommended daily portions for the food groups that you should try to follow. I found this neat “Hand Guide to Portion Control” (also shown below) to help visualize the correct serving sizes. I think this would be most useful when eating out at a restaurant. One easy way to control portion sizes when cooking at home is to prepare the meal and then the plates, without putting the serving/cooking dishes on the table. Sometimes I even go to the point of packing the extras in our lunch containers before we eat to prevent me from getting seconds.

Hand Guide to Portion Control

5) De-stress Your Life

“Yeah right. Easier said than done,” you say. Stress and type-A personality increase the risk for heart disease and heart attack, so we NEED to find time to de-stress our lives. One way to do this is exercise. Now we have completed two goals just by exercising! Another activity to decrease your stress is through conducting meditation or relaxation techniques. My favorite technique is the progressive muscle relaxation technique. You can find step-by-step instructions here. Some find it beneficial to wake up 5-10 minutes early or take 5 minutes from their lunch break and perform this quiet meditation. Other find stress relief in performing activities they enjoy such as reading, art projects, or taking a bubble bath.